Originally Posted by
Eric F
IMO, there are a number of factors involved that might make a difference in how mixed tread patterns perform, including surface composition and handling skills. While the RS certainly isn’t very grippy under braking on loose surfaces, it’s within my comfort zone for being able to get it to do what I need it to do (so far) in the areas Inride most frequently.
In off-road conditions the traction demand differences between front and rear are amplified. MTB’ers have been mixing tread patterns for decades for this reason.
Absolutely…and I’d add to the list factors how a bike needs to be ridden (aka how it handles). I haven’t run mixed tread patterns for a cohple of decades now because I’m all road, but when I was MTBing in the ‘80s/‘90s, I not only did it commonly, but the tire companies marketed mixed treads as matched pairs, e.g. Panaracer’s Dart/Smoke F/R combo, or Specialized Ground Control 2/ Ground Control Extreme. I had favorite combos I ran on my Fat City Yo Eddy (Specialized GCs) and GT Karakoram K2 (Panaracer Fire XC Pro), but when I got my Dekerf with it’s Ti bullmoose-style bars, they’d flex and load up under cornering, causing the front to spring out of corners unlike anything I was familiar with, and finding the right riding style and tire to optimize performance was uniquely challenging. My best results for that bike were with running two Geax Hooks front and rear. Geax had a front specific tire called the Blade— the green sidewalls were iconic!— but it was too slippy coming out of high speed turns on SE MI sand trails when the bars swung back and disrupted balance.
Anyway, point being that picking best tire combos is a matter of trial and error.